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Gingo Animation
Clive Nakayashiki Athena Christaniakis Scott Setterberg |products = TV shows Theatrical feature films Specials Direct-to-video projects TV movies Theatrical short films Commercials |num_employees = 100 |parent = Independent (1988–98) Universal Studios (1998–2005) Gingo Entertainment (2005–present) |divisions = Gingo Online }} Gingo Animation, LLC (or simply Gingo) is an American animation studio headquartered in North Hollywood, California. Founded by former Hanna-Barbera animators Geo G. and Michael Wildshill on February 13, 1988, the studio is operated as a subsidiary of Gingo Entertainment, and is best known for producing animated television series, feature films, shorts, and video games such as Gabriel Garza, Hatty, BJ and Wally, Niz Chicoloco, Chrysocolla, Jenny Zoom, Planetokio, Critter Mockers, Zina and the Vivid Crew, Metro Cone, The Pandemoniums, Archot, Imagimals, and Cool Spot. After some experimental computer-animated short films during the late 1990s beginning with Tifi (1996), it entered the computer animation market with Metro Cone (2005). Gingo was later bought by Universal Studios in 1998 following the merger of the studio's feature animation unit with Universal Feature Animation two years prior. On February 21, 2005, Gingo was spun off from Universal, allowing the latter to retain the rights to most of the studio's pre-2005 library. The studio is still associated with Universal, but also has other studios such as 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures distribute some of its productions. Gabriel Garza, the main character of the studio's animated television series of the same name, is the studio's mascot. History Early years (1982–1998) Gingo's predecessor Geo-Wildshill Productions was founded in 1982 as a division of Hanna-Barbera by animators Geo G. and Michael Wildshill, who wanted to realize their dream of producing an animated feature-length film. On February 13, 1988, after leaving Hanna-Barbera due to financial reasons, Geo and Wildshill opened their own studio named Gingo Productions, which would develop characters, stories, and productions, and some of the animators who worked for Geo and Wildshill at Hanna-Barbera came to the studio at the time. In 1989, Gingo announced a joint venture with motion picture studio Orion Pictures to form Orion Animation, an animation division which would produce animated projects for Orion. Orion Animation was closed in 1996. The same year, the studio produced its first short film, The Special Visitor. Gingo had produced a Saturday morning animated series titled Gabriel Garza, which ran on CBS from 1991 to 1993 and on the syndicated Gingo Lineup block from 1996 to 2002, in conjunction with Universal Cartoon Studios. Its title character, based on the boy from Gingo's short film The Special Visitor, has been the studio's mascot since his introduction. CBS expressed a strong desire in 1992 for Gingo to create a new series, and the studio began conceiving Hatty during this period; that same year, Gingo changed its name to Gingo Animation, LLC. The following year, Gingo created a new division named Glass Ball Productions, which typically produces animated films and television shows targeted to adult audiences. Meanwhile, some of the Gingo staff got a call from Universal Studios to form an in-house feature animation department. Co-founder Michael Wildshill and his colleagues left to develop animated feature films there. Gingo Feature Animation, which was set up at a separate building apart from the main Gingo studio in North Hollywood, was the studio's feature animation division which produced its first two films Romeo and Juliet (1994) and Ghost Vision (1995) for Universal Pictures. Spun off from the feature division of Hanna-Barbera Productions, Gingo Feature Animation was shut down in 1996 when it was being merged into Universal Feature Animation. However, after Gingo Feature Animation merged into Universal Feature Animation, Gingo began producing feature films fully in-house at its main North Hollywood headquarters, starting with Paint World in 1999. In 1994, Gingo Interactive Software LLC, the studio's in-house video game development department, was founded, the first project of which was [[Gabriel Garza (1996 video game)|the video game adaptation of Gabriel Garza]], and later developed the Niz Chicoloco and Chrysocolla games. On March 12, 1996, Gingo began collaborating with Universal on the syndicated Gingo Lineup block, which began on August 31, 1996. In May 1996, Universal and Gingo announced they were to co-finance and distribute Paint World, which had been in pre-production for a year. At this time Universal purchased a 40% share of Gingo. Three months later, the studio's second animated series Hatty aired on the syndicated Gingo Lineup block, and ran until 2002. To expand the studio's online content presence, Gingo Animation launched their own official website named Gingo.com in 1996. The website gathers its core animation properties in a single online environment that is interactive and customizable for site visitors. It offers both originally produced content along with press releases, games, free wallpapers, desktop backgrounds, and screensavers. Some of the characters to be used in the project from the Gingo libraries include those of Gabriel Garza and Hatty. In 1997, Gingo formed Northwood Interactive, a video game publisher that releases Japanese video games outside Japan; the first project of which was Fantasy Tap for the PlayStation, but the company's most successful title is Planetokio in 1999. Universal ownership (1998–2004) On March 21, 1998, Seagram, at the time the parent of Universal Studios, agreed to purchase Gingo Animation in a deal worth $2.1 billion, strengthening the relationship between Universal and Gingo. Upon announcement of the news, CNN reported that the deal "gives Universal immediate access to the family-friendly audience in animation and multimedia entertainment". Former Gingo co-founder and Universal Feature Animation CEO Michael Wildshill would oversee both Gingo and UFA following the completion of the merger, which reunited Gingo founder Geo G., while Universal animation president John Cohen would lead the feature animation divisions of Universal and Gingo for the entire Universal group. The deal does not include TeenV, an adult animated sitcom produced under Gingo's Glass Ball Productions label, which was retained by 20th Century Fox, who opted to retain said series within its adult animation lineup alongside The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Futurama. Fox continues to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the rights of TeenV. The acquisition was completed on June 3, 1998. Gingo was renamed Universal/Gingo Animation and continued to operate as a stand-alone business unit. With Gingo Feature Animation already merged into Universal Feature Animation in 1996, Gingo's syndicated Lineup block was under the Universal Television umbrella, while its video game subsidiaries Gingo Interactive and Northwood Interactive (under the Gingo Interactive Group) were reorganized into Universal Interactive Studios. Although Gingo was under the Universal Feature Animation studio, Gingo remained as a separate entity within Universal. Animators at Gingo worked on projects based at the Gingo studio, but also assisted in UFA projects based in the Universal City UFA studio. From October 21, 1999 to January 31, 2000, Gingo produced four three-minute animated short films to promote the North American release of Planetokio, entitled Bot Fight, Race, Clones and Iken's Lunch; they were originally available for viewing on the North American Planetokio website. On December 25, 1999, Paint World was released by Universal Pictures to great critical and financial success. The film was solely produced by Gingo and was originally not intended to be a part of the Universal Animated Features canon. However, Universal later revealed that Paint World would be part of the canon, where it was released under the Universal Feature Animation label. In 2001, Gingo partnered with Venice-based visual effects company Blur Studio to provide animation for computer-animated feature films, beginning with Metro Cone, Gingo's first computer-animated feature, in 2005. After Universal Pictures put the project into turnaround, Metro Cone was distributed by 20th Century Fox. For then, the studio had the traditional animators working for their main hand-drawn animation department, and the computer animators worked on CG productions. In 2002, The Gabriel Garza Movie, a feature-length film based on the Gabriel Garza series, was released, while Glass Ball released TeenV Movie the following year. In 2004, Gingo released Zina and the Vivid Crew, distributed by Universal, and was a modest box office success, grossing over $293 million worldwide. Split from Universal (2005–present) In January 2005, Gingo announced its split from Universal due to new opportunities as well as more offerings if the company goes independent. By February 2005, Gingo was split from Universal, and effectively reversed the Universal/Gingo merger of 1998. Universal currently retains the rights for the pre-2005 Gingo library as well as retaining the right of first refusal to distribute sequels to pre-2005 films; as of 2018, most of the pre-2005 library is now owned by Universal Animation Studios. Geo G. headed the studio following the split, while Michael Wildshill had declined to oversee Gingo and remained on board as a consultant. In addition, Gingo Animation was transferred into a new entertainment company called Gingo Entertainment Media, LLC, headed by its president Clive Nakayashiki. Its divisions Glass Ball Productions and Gingo Interactive, with the latter being formerly under the Universal Interactive umbrella, were integrated under Gingo Entertainment. In January 2006, Gingo and Blur Studio extended the deal for an additional five films. With Blur doing computer animation, they covered all two major styles, besides traditional animation. This partnership had Gingo participating in the production of computer-animated films in Venice, and also had Blur participating in some of the hand-drawn films made in North Hollywood. In April 2006, Gingo launched their official YouTube channel. Gingo's partnership with Blur Studio ended after the release of Workers, having Blur animated three out of five computer animated films. The announcement was made before the film's release, on August 26, 2013, citing "creative differences". Gingo then replaced Blur with Creative Step Studio, the studio's in-house computer animation department that would produce CGI-animated films on their own starting with Metro Cone Forever in 2015. In October 2014, just a month before the release of Disney's Big Hero 6, Gingo entered a licensing agreement with Disney to use the Hiro Hamada character and trademark for its productions (such as films, television series, shorts, specials, video games, etc.), which sparked media speculation that Hiro will guest star in Gingo's animated comedy sketch series ''GGTV''. Gingo's CEO and founder Geo G. stated that the reasoning was due to wanting to have Hiro in Gingo media because of the increasing popularity of "Liro", an internet crossover fan-fiction relationship between Hiro and Leno Garza, a character from Gingo's ''Gabriel Garza'' franchise, as they both share the similar appearance and characteristics. Gingo stated in July 2017 that they intend to keep the Hiro Hamada character license from Disney until the contract expires in 2027. In December 2015, the rights to the Metro Cone ''franchise as well as ''The 10 Feet ''and ''Workers which were owned by 20th Century Fox reverted back to Gingo due to Fox's contract of retaining rights to Fox/Gingo films expiring. Name Gingo is named after Gingo biloba (later Ginkgo biloba), a poem written by the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The poem was published in his work West-östlicher Diwan (West-Eastern Divan), first published in 1819. Goethe used "Gingo" instead of "Ginkgo" in the first version to avoid the hard sound of the letter "k". The studio is also named after the identically named Ginkgo biloba, the only living species in the division Ginkgophyta, all others being extinct. It is found in fossils dating back 270 million years. Native to China, the tree is widely cultivated and was introduced early to human history. It has various uses in traditional medicine and as a source of food. The genus name Ginkgo is regarded as a misspelling of the Japanese gin kyo, "silver apricot". However, "gingo" is more commonly translated as "passed" from Swedish. The name of the studio was originally going to be "StarActive Studios", but founders Geo and Wildshill wanted to come up with "something funny" and said to be intended to describe the non-linear editing systems and video compression the studio was specializing on. They later decided to go with Gingo Animation Studios, most commonly known today as Gingo Animation. However, Geo has claimed that the name was a result of being a pun on "bingo but with a G instead of a B". Productions :See also: List of Gingo Animation films :For feature films by Gingo Feature Animation, see Gingo Feature Animation. For productions by Glass Ball Productions, see Glass Ball Productions. Feature films Released films Upcoming films Films in development Direct-to-video films Television series Television specials Short films Video games Miscellaneous work *''TeenV Movie'' (2003) (animation) Franchises Accolades Coming soon! See also *List of unproduced Gingo projects *List of unreleased Gingo games *Glass Ball Productions *Northwood Entertainment *Universal Animation Studios *Sony Pictures Animation *20th Century Fox Animation Category:Companies Category:Gingo Animation Category:Gingo Animation Wiki